Docker 1.5 and Node.js Foundations

Back in December we saw two community splits, one in the Docker community and one in the Node.js community. It’s time to look back at both those splits.

Docker 1.5 just landed with IPV6 support, read only containers, a stats API and CLI commands for streaming results and the ability to specify what Dockerfile to use when building. Good updates.

Now, the other bits – There’s also an “Open Image Spec” which isn’t so much a spec as a formal declaration of whats currently implemented. Thats a documentation +1 but open it isn’t . It seems to be a response to Rocket, which is a specification by design. It’s a start but there’s still the question of how transparent and inclusive the development of that spec will be.

Node.js owner Joyent has announced a the establishment of a Node.js Foundation. Billed as bringing “Neutral and Open Governance” to Node.js. The “Foundation” will be established by Joyent, IBM, PayPal, Microsoft, Fidelity and the Linux Foundation. One assumes the Linux Foundation will be providing the umbrella organisation for the Node.js Foundation to work under as they have for other organisations.

But, as Bradley Kuhn points out this isn’t really a foundation as an charity that works for the public good; in the US that’s a 501(c)(3). The Linux Foundation and the proposed Node.js Foundation are not that kind of foundation – they are trade associations run for benefit of their members, 501(c)(6) organisations. That means you don’t “magically get a neutral home and open governance”.

We don’t have enough information to see how the new organisation will be run but the announcement is just an announcement and the details may contain more than trace amounts of devil. For the Node.js community, this is just a milestone in a long road and a parallel road marked io.js is running alongside it for now.